{"id":18644,"date":"2018-02-08T20:01:43","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T12:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/good-news-for-starman-spacefaring-tesla-roadster-will-miss-mars-and-asteroids\/"},"modified":"2018-02-08T20:01:43","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T12:01:43","slug":"good-news-for-starman-spacefaring-tesla-roadster-will-miss-mars-and-asteroids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/good-news-for-starman-spacefaring-tesla-roadster-will-miss-mars-and-asteroids\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news for Starman: Spacefaring Tesla Roadster will miss Mars and asteroids"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Starman
A camera mounted on the spacefaring Tesla Roadster shows Starman in the driver\u2019s seat with Earth essentially in the rear-view mirror. (SpaceX Photo via Instagram \/ Elon Musk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It took a day or two, but astronomers have figured out where the Tesla Roadster launched into deep space aboard SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket is going. And it\u2019s not the planet Mars or the asteroid belt.<\/p>\n

Observations of the Roadster, which has a spacesuit-clad mannequin named Starman riding in the driver\u2019s seat, indicate that it\u2019s in an elliptical orbit around the sun that will take it just outside the orbit of Mars and then back to slightly within Earth\u2019s orbital distance.<\/p>\n

If you run out the orbit over the foreseeable future, it\u2019s not on a path to run into Earth, or Mars, or any asteroids.<\/p>\n

\"Roadster
An orbital diagram shows the anticipated path of the spacefaring Tesla Roadster as a green ellipse. The blue ellipse represents Earth\u2019s orbit, and the orange ellipse is Mars\u2019 orbit. (OrbitSimulator.com Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX\u2019s billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, raised some eyebrows hours after Tuesday\u2019s launch when he reported that the Roadster received more of a push from the Falcon Heavy rocket\u2019s upper stage than expected. He said it was on a course that would take it deep within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Later observations and calculations have shown that it won\u2019t go that far out. Its farthest distance from the sun will be about 158 million miles \u2014 a point that it\u2019s slated to reach on its first go-around on Nov. 19.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll come back to just inside Earth\u2019s orbital distance on Sept. 1, 2019, but our planet won\u2019t be anywhere near it at the time. Or any other time.<\/p>\n

Jonathan McDowell, an expert orbit-watcher from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, provided the lay of the land in a series of tweets:<\/p>\n